The Gemma Project
Legal name: The Gemma Project Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 931508940
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2024–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-N 2023
- Location
- Oakland, CA, USA
- Phone
- (510) 210-3636
- Rating
- 55
- Verdict
- MIXED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Rehabilitation Services for Offenders
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $237,171
- Expenses
- $76,019
- Assets
- $277,207
- Liabilities
- $0
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
2 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Cynthia Chase (Co-Founder & Executive Director)
People named in this filing
- Cynthia Chase (Co-Founder & Executive Director)
- Lara Love Hardin (CFO & Secretary)
Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
The Gemma Project provides, and promotes the national creation of, gender-responsive reentry programming that serves incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women with integrity and compassion. We advocate for policy change focused on what works to reduce recidivism, break the intergenerational cycle of incarceration, and create healthier communities.
What it reported doing in 2024
The Gemma Project received funding to provide gender-responsive in-reach reentry preparation and continuing care community support for women paroling from the two women's prisons in California to 10 coastal counties: Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Monterey, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Cruz, Santa Clara, Solano and Sonoma. The BSCC Adult Reentry Grant (ARG) is a three-year competitive grant administered by the Board of State and Community Corrections (BSCC), running from January 2023 through December 2025. It provides rental subsidies and move-in assistance to eligible individuals re-entering the community as well reentry support.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Grant-funded. 63% of the money available for current operations came from government grants.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 100% of reported program-service expenses outside its grant, affiliate-payment, and member-benefit lines. This expense classification does not rule out separately announced grant awards.
The verdict
MIXED - The filed numbers largely add up and most voting board members are independent. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and a relatively small share of total spending goes to programs.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 10
- Transparency & Controls: 100
- Accountability: 82
- Sustainability: 84
- Growth: NotEnoughData
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 6.2%; rating input score 6
- Program expense ratio: 19.4%; rating input score 19
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: Limited
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 4 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 57
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Fail
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 67.9%; rating input score 96; 96th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 3.65; rating input score 73; 73rd percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 80; 80th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 69; 69th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: Limited
- Revenue growth: Limited
- Asset growth: Limited
Details
- What they do: 3 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 2 operating locations identified
- Where the money goes: 6.2% of revenue deployed · 19.4% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 5 of 5 board members independent · 4 of 7 filing controls reported
- Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 2 people listed
- Consistency: 18 of 19 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 3 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
- People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.
- Staff and benefit plans: Retirement and health plans the organization files with the Department of Labor, and the people in them.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 6/100.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Program expense ratio scored 19/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 7 not reported.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Fund balance restriction sum did not reconcile in the filed values.